Strengthening Article 20

Strengthening Article 20 By MERLE H. WEINER* THE HAGUE CONVENTION on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction ("the Hague Convention") tis a private international treaty in force in approximately seventy-five countries. 2 The Hague Convention addresses international child abduction and generally re- quires that an abducted child be promptly returned to his or her habitual residence, unless the abductor can invoke one of several defenses set forth in the Hague Convention.' This Article focuses on * Associate Professor of Law, University of Oregon School of Law. An earlier version of this article was published by Bruylant as part of the conference proceedings for Les Enlivements d'Enfants , Travers les Frontiers, held at.the Universitejean Moulin (Lyon 3) in November 2003. 1 want to thank Professor Hugues Fuichiron and his colleagues at the Faculte de Droit and the Centre de Droit de ]a Farille for hosting the stimulating conference. I also appreciate Professor Fulchiron's permission to republish my conference paper in the United States, albeit with modifications. I appreciate the useful comments that I received on this paper from colleagues at the University of Oregon, especially Leslie Harris and Robert Tsai, and from Carol Bruch. The following research assistants were very helpful on this project: Tim Fleming, Daniel Foster, Frank Gihnore,Jay Livingston, and Joe Rohner. I especially want to single out the efforts of two research assistants, Jane Trost and Melissa Wright, both of whom worked with me for several years now and both of whom graduated this last spring. Their efforts have enhanced many of ny research projects, including this one, and I am very indebted to them for their outstanding work, commitment, and friendship. I also want to acknowledge the excellent secretarial support given by Karyn Smith. 1. Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, Oct. 25, 1980, T.I.A.S. No. 11,670, 1343 U.N.T.S. 89. 2. See Lkct.uE CONFIREN( ON PRIV.ATE INT'L L\w, Futmm. STATS REPORT CONVLNTION No. 28, at http://,ww.hcch.net/e/status/stat28e.html (last. accessed June 14, 2004). 3. The Hague Convention defenses are found in several articles: article 12 ("'[ihe judicial or administrative authority, even where the proceedings have been commenced after the expiration of the period of one year referred to in the preceding paragraph, shall also order the return of the child, unless it is demonstrated that the child is now settled in its new environment."); article 13(a) ("[T]he person, institution or other body having the care of the person of the child was not actually exercising the custody rights at the time of removal or retention, or had consented to or subsequently acquiesced in the removal or retention."); article 13(b) ("[T] here is a grave risk that his or her return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in an intolerable situa- tion."); article 13 (unnumbered portion) ("[T]he child objects to being retuned and has attained an age and degree of maturity at which it is appropriate to take account of its views."); and article 20 ("The return of the child under the provisions of [ajrticle 12 may be refused if this would not be permitted by the fundamental principles of the requested 701 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO LTW REVIEW [Vol. 38 article 20 of the Hague Convention, which provides that a court may refuse to return a child if return "would not be permitted by the fundamental principles of the requested State relating to the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms." The article 20 defense has minimal doctrinal significance at present; however, I argue that it can and should be strengthened to make the Hague Convention oper- ate more justly for those domestic violence victims who flee transna- tionally with their children as part of their effort to escape from domestic violence. I have previously written that domestic violence victims are some- times treated unjustly when they arc respondents in cases brought pursuant to the Hague Convention. 4 At the time the Hague Conven- tion was being drafted, approximately twenty-five years ago, many imagined that the prototypical abductor would be a father who lost, or would lose, a custody contest to a mother.5 It made perfect sense, therefore, for the Hague Convention to contain expedited procedures and a remedy that returns a child to the child's habitual residence (and, it was assumed, typically to the child's primary caretaker). As it turns out, however, approximately seventy percent of the "abductors" subjected to the Hague Convention's remedy are women, 6 most of whom are the child's primary caretaker 7 and many of whom claim to be fleeing from domestic violence.8 Notwithstanding these women's predicaments, some judges grant the petitions of these women's bat- State relating to the protection of human rights arid indamental freedoms."). Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, supra note 1, at arts. 12-13, 20. 4. Merle 11. Weiner, International Child Abduction and the Escapef]om Domestic Violence, 69 FoR-in-iV L. Ruv. 593 (2000) [hereinafter Weiner, International Child Abduction]. 5. Id. at 601-10. 6. Nigel Lowe, Sarah Armstrong, & Anest Mathias, A StatisticalAnalysis o] Applications lade in 1999 Under the I-agutie Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil p.,qects of International Child Abduction, Special Comm'n Prelim. Doc. No. 3, March 2001, at 8, available at http:// www.hcch.n(t/doc/abdpd3e.doc (last accessed Aug. 24, 2004) [hereinafter Lowe, Statisti- cal Anatvsi,5]; see also REUNITE, INT'l. CHIi.D ABDUCTION C .NTRF, TH ()TCOME S FOR CAM.- DIEN R'TURNS 0 FOL.LOWING AN AtmU(CTON 17 (Sept. 2003) (sixty-three percent of sample involved abduction by mother). 7. See REUNITE, supra note 6, at 7 (commenting on pilot project involving twenty- three questionnaires which confirmed "mothers are more often the abductors of their children than fathers, and that, in most cases, it is the primary caregiver who will abduct their child"). 8. Women claimed to be victims of domestic violence in seven out of nine cases that reached the United States Courts of Appeal between July 2000 and January 2001. See Merle 1I. Weiner, Navigatingthe Road Between Unilbrmity and Progress: The Need for PsPitosiveAna,sis of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of nternationalChild Abdutitian, 33 Cof.t M. Huiv. RTS. L. Rr.v. 275, 277 (2002) [hereinafter Weiner, Navigating the Road Between Unifonnity and Progress]. Domestic violence was the reason lor the abduction that emerged in live of the Surnmer 2004] ,WFICLE 20 terers and return their children to the place from which the women have just fled.!' Domestic violence victims receive no special treatment when they are respondents in these proceedings, and most domestic violence victims cannot make successful argunents under the Hague ° Convention's limited defenses. " Fortunately, the topic of domestic violence is on the agenda for the 2005 Special Session to Review Opera- tion of the Hague Convention. These facts provide the background against which I suggest article 20 should be strengthened. Strengthening article 20 is important for at least three reasons. First, attempts to breathe life back into article 20 and the recognition of domestic violence as a human rights issue may motivate delegates at the next Special Session to improve the Hague Convention's opera- tion for cases that involve domestic violence. Focusing attention on article 20, with its reference to human rights, may help set an appropriate tone for that meeting. After all, the countries that will partici- pate at the Special Session are parties to international instruments that recognize domestic violence as a human rights issue and impose affirmative obligations on countries to address the issue.I Their delegates should act to protect these women and children by, among other things, reinforcing the idea that article 20 is a viable defense for some domestic violence victims. Second, strengthening article 20 should help some domestic violence victims who currently lack other viable defenses. As will be ar- gued below, it violates fundamental principles of human rights to send a domestic violence victim's child back to a location where the mother is unsafe. This inflicts a horrific choice on the domestic violence victim: your safety or your child. She can return with her child to the child's habitual residence, but her safety and life will be at risk. Alternatively, she can choose her own safety and not return to her child's habitual residence. However, then she will be temporarily de- eleven interviews with abducting mothers in the REUNITE study. See REUNITE, supra note 6,at 20-21. 9. See, e.g., Whallon v. Lynn, 230 F.3d 450 (6th Cir. 2000); Tabacchi v. Harrison, No. 99 C 4130, 2000 WI, 190576 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 10, 2000). 10. While a sympathetic court occasionally extends or contorts the Hague Convention to accommodate some domestic violence victims, judges' manipulation of the Hague Con- vention to help domestic violence victims causes its own problems, including making inad- vertent loopholes that potentially threaten the Hague Convention itself. Reform is needed because donestic Niolence victims are treated grudgingly and inconsistently and because consistency of interpretation is essential to this treaty's continued success. See generally Wei- net, Navigating the Road Between Uniformity and Progpes, supra note 8. 11. See discussion infra Part II.B.I. UNIVERSI'IY OF SAN FRANCISCO LAW REVIEW LVol. 38 prived of her child pending the custody contest, she will be leaving her child without her protection, and she will be increasing the risk of losing any subsequent custody contest because she will be absent from that proceeding.12 A court should not return a domestic violence victim's child if the mother would be faced with such an inhumane choice.

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